Samsung didn't talk about these S24 camera features at Unpacked

Samsung touted a variety of camera features during the Galaxy S24 series launch. This included generative AI photo editing, image expansion, and improved zoom. Now, it turns out that more features are coming to the new phones.

The company revealed a bunch of camera-related additions to the Galaxy S24 series on its Korean-language Community forum.

Dual Recording

One of the most notable tweaks is that the Director’s View feature is now called Dual Recording and has received some welcome improvements. Dual Recording now lets you record videos from any two cameras at once (e.g. selfie and main, or ultrawide and telephoto).

This is a welcome improvement over Director’s View on past phones, which restricted you to simultaneously recording videos from the selfie camera and a single rear camera.

Samsung also noted that you can simultaneously record two 4K video clips via Dual Recording. But this feature is restricted to the S24 Ultra owing to heating concerns.

A faster camera

The Korean manufacturer also says the Galaxy S24 offers a faster camera in general. The company says that single-frame shooting, multi-frame processing, and HDR shooting have all received speed improvements.

Furthermore, Samsung says continuous shooting is also faster as a shot can now be captured even while the previous shot is still being processed. This seems like an overdue addition but we’re glad to see it anyway.

Portrait and blur improvements

Samsung says it’s using AI to increase the blur effect of subjects/objects placed in front of a subject. This means you can get shots such as the examples seen below.

Samsung phones offer a portrait/background blur option in the photo editor, letting you blur an image’s background while keeping the subject in focus. The S24 series improves things here too, as it can now detect dogs and cats and turn these pet photos into portrait shots.

Better support for camera hardware

Interestingly enough, the new phones also bring improved support for two camera accessories.

The S24 series specifically offers correction functionality when you’ve got a DoF adapter and a camera lens attached to your phone. Samsung explains that images can be rotated 180 degrees when using a DoF adapter and camera lens, so the correction functionality rotates the image to the correct orientation.

Furthermore, the new Galaxy devices offer distortion correction when using an anamorphic lens on your camera.

24MP by default in Expert RAW

Apple made an interesting decision with the iPhone 15 range as these handsets now shoot at 24MP by default. Samsung is following in the Cupertino company’s footsteps by offering 24MP shots by default, albeit in the Expert RAW camera app.

Samsung says it’s able to deliver a 24MP shot by combining multiple 12MP frames and a 50MP photo. So those who want a middle-ground between a pixel-binned 12MP shot and a 50MP/200MP full-resolution capture have another option at their disposal. Fingers crossed that we see this in the main camera app down the line too.

Audio monitoring

Samsung’s latest phones now offer audio monitoring functionality as well. This means you can listen to the sound picked up by the phone’s mics while recording video. This functionality works via your own wired/wireless earphones, speakers, or over HDMI.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen audio monitor capabilities on a smartphone as LG’s phones have long offered this feature. But we’re nevertheless glad to see Samsung pick this up too, especially for people creating video content on their phones.

Either way, these Galaxy S24 features join a host of One UI 6.1 camera upgrades and tweaks that are coming to older phones too. This includes an improved Single Take mode, colorization of black-and-white photos, and a new way to generate long-exposure shots.